05-09-2007 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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ANALYSIS HOM furniture is requesting a variety of approvals to accommodate a retail furniture store and showroom, as well as a variety of potential retail tenants. The site contains a 165,287 square foot building and a large parking lot. Three existing curb cuts provide access to the site from Country Drive, one in the northwest corner and two on the east side. The applicant is proposing to close the northernmost access on the east side of the site to alleviate circulation concerns. No additional landscaping or other site improvements are proposed as part of the application. Permitted Uses. The applicant is requesting a text amendment to Section 913.020 of the Zoning Ordinance regulating permitted uses in the BW District. As the code currently reads, the following uses are permitted: A. Offices, commercial and professional. B. Office - warehousing, as defined in this Ordinance. C. Office - showrooms, as defined in this Ordinance. D. Governmental and public utility buildings and structures. E. Essential services. The applicant is requesting an amendment to add furniture retail stores as a permitted use in the district. Retail furniture stores often require very large spaces, as large warehouse areas are often necessary to accommodate inventory. The building proposed to house the HOM furniture use is consistent with characteristics. A large portion of the building will also be dedicated to a showroom use, which is unique to furniture type retail uses, as their merchandise is quite large. Complimentary retail uses including home decor, tools, and flooring are expected to be located in the adjacent flexible tenant space. Due to the size of the space required, the proposed uses are generally consistent with the intent of the district. Therefore, the proposed text amendment may be appropriate. However, staff recommends specifically limiting the ordinance amendment to allow for furniture, home decor, flooring and tool retail uses, and no other form of retail. Staff has prepared language for the proposed amendment, which can be found attached as Exhibit A. Parking. The parking requirement for retail uses is one space for each 200 square feet of floor area. The warehousing and storage portions of the building require one parking stall for each 500 feet of floor area. The applicant has not indicated any potential uses for the flexible tenant space but has identified them as retail users compatible with the furniture store use. The floor area of the furniture store is 21 percent storage and 75 percent retail and display. It is expected that the future tenants for the remainder of the site will have similar floorplans. In that regard, the parking requirement for the site is shown below. The calculations take the gross floor area of the building at 90 percent, with 10 percent assumed to be dedicated to hallways, utilities, restrooms, and the like. 2